God's Mighty Power!

We had an amazing Youth Group night tonight! :) I really felt God's peace, and it really encouraged and uplifted me. I had a few thoughts on my mind that I wanted to share, so I am going to blog about it!
One thing to know before I start, is that I absolutely love Kari Jobe's song, "Revelation Song". To me, it has so much meaning, and gives me chills every time I listen to it (in a good way! ;) ) This, fortunately, was played by our awesome worship team, and I loved every minute of it!
A few lines really stood out to me, two of them being "Flashes of Lightning, Rolls of Thunder", and "Jesus, Your Name is Power" In the way it is sung, it is proclaiming God's mighty power, and his breathtaking works of art on the earth He has given us!
These lines made me remember a chapter of Psalms that is sometimes called "Psalm of the Thunderstorm". :) This Psalm reads:

"Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,1

cascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

worship the Lord in dthe splendor of holiness.2

3 The voice of the Lord is over ethe waters;

the God of glory fthunders,

the Lord, over many waters.

4 The voice of the Lord is gpowerful;

the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;

the Lord breaks hthe cedars of Lebanon.

6 He makes Lebanon to iskip like a calf,

and jSirion like a young kwild ox.

7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.

8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;

the Lord shakes the wilderness of lKadesh.

9 The voice of the Lord makes mthe deer give birth

and strips the forests bare,

and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” "

 

~Psalm 29

 

This Psalm really emphasizes God's mighty power over the earth! A beautiful and admirable attribute to our powerful King of Kings! In the process of searching for this Psalm when I was reminded of it, I also came across another scripture that made me bear in mind an unforgettable experience I had with Danielle and my dad. :)

 

"When the waters saw you, O God,

When the waters saw you, they were afraid,

indeed the deep trembled,

The clouds poured out the water,

The skies gave forth thunder,

your arrows flashed on each side,

The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind,

your lightning lighted up the world;

The earth trembled and shook"

 

~Psalm 77:16-17

 

Notice that I italicized "your lightning lighted up the world". This is the part of the verses that really stood out to me. :) All the verses really were about my experience, but for some reason, this one especially stood out to me. I'll clue you in on my story now. :)

One time there was a storm. The normal type of thunderstorm, with lightning and thunder (of course ;) ) and heavy rain. It was at nighttime, so the windows flashed and contrasted the dark outside.

After the storm had somewhat "passed" over us, we had strolled out to the deck to watch the lightning.

 The sky somehow "shone" a brilliant, deep, majestic purple, with black complimenting the ends of the sky. All around us, fluorescent lightning randomly emerged from the heavens, branching out and disappearing. But it wasn't a situation in which every once in awhile, a deep, thunderous roar would signal the approach of a single branch of lightning.

The night was silent, and the crickets were beginning to chirp again. It was still, but you could feel the energy of nature at the same time. All across the sky, lightning bolts continually flashed, as if God Himself was composing it. In fact, it was EXACTLY as if the Lord was putting on a beautiful show for us to enjoy His beautiful works. It was random, but at the same time... not... haha, if that makes sense.

 The silence and peace also added to the effect, and we all truly enjoyed it. We went inside before it ended, because just when it seemed like it would stop, it would continue stronger. My parents were worried about us getting shocked by lightning, and us staying up too late. I don't know how long it went on for, but it was still going on when I went to sleep. It was truly an amazing experience.

 

It astounds me, that a Creator so unique, and mind blowing would want to be with us and know us! :) That He would send His Son to die for us... and not only us, but for our sins.

So tonight I want to just take the time to thank our Lord for his stunning acts, and his desire to be with us, as sinning human beings!

Humility (Part Two)

In the bible, it shows us MANY examples of how to be humbe. There are people to obeyed God's word, willingly, and showed humility in some of the hardest situations. The first one I want to talk about is Mary. This is what happens in Luke 1:30-38

"But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. "
 How would you feel if an angel asked you to give birth to the Son of God? Scared? Nervous? I know I would! Mary is the perfect example of humility in this situation! We should say, "I am the Lord's sevant" just as she did to every situation, no matter how hard it is to do. I know I really struggle with doing this.

Another great man of the bible is John the Baptist. He knew of Jesus coming, and clearly made it known that he is worthy, and that Jesus was much greater than him. Matthew 3:11 says
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
John the Baptist was humble by not thinking he was the greatest, and that is what made him seem so great! You see how humility makes you the best? Later, Jesus asked him to baptize him. John did, but not with pride. With humility. John was a great man.

In Mark 12:41-44, a widow gave everything she had to the church, which was only a couple small copper coins. Jesus makes a point, that really, she gave more than the rich people "Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”          This widow showed humility. She gave EVERYTHING she had to go to the church... EVERYTHING!! What if you gave everything you have to the church? That would be hard, sometimes being humble is hard. I am sure God blessed her! Now for my favorite verse: Acts 5:40 &41 "They (The Jewish leaders) called the apostles in again. They beat the apostles and told them not to speak in the name of Jesus again. Then they let them go free. The apostles left the meeting full of joy because they were given the honor of suffering disgrace for Jesus" The apostles were so faithful to Jesus! They gave everything up for Jesus, followed him, and watched him perform many miracles, and then he got taken away, and suffered and tortured then died on the cross! Then they go out and preach the Word. They get beaten by the people who killed Jesus, and they were overjoyed? I don't know about you, but that is just crazy (in a good way)! I wrote another blog post on this one, but I wanted to show how it related to humility.   Now for the most humble person of all, JESUS!! There are so many examples of how was humble, like speaking to crowds, being with the little children and taking his time to heal people and help people know God. But the most humble thing anyone has ever done, was Jesus sacrificing himself. When I was little I used to think. Yeah, if it were me, I would die on a cross to save everyone. But it's more complex than that. First of all, Jesus knew, that still, although he scarificed himself, not everyone would take that opportunity to know Jesus and to thank him. In fact, people are AGAINST christianity and don't believe he ever did that. Second of all, he was a king, and he should have been treated like royalty. But that's not how it worked. He went below everyone, he didn't rise above everyone and announce "I AM THE KING AND EVRYONE SHOULD BOW DOWN TO ME!!" Instead he went to the poor and washed people's feet. Also, it's not as simple as just"dying on the cross". He got whipped, and was weak and had to carry his own cross, and his hands and feet were nailed to the cross. It's not like it was a quick and painless death. He stayed on the cross for hours until he died, and even then, taking up the sin of the world, God, his own father, had to look away (How would you feel if your father had to look away from you and not be able to support you in this time of suffering?). Another thing, is Jesus had the choice of angels to save him, and bring him to heaven. But he didn't. Honestly, now, I think I would ask angels to save me. I would be terrified. But Jesus knew what was right, and really, we should be humble to him BECAUSE of what he has done, and many other reasons, like how subjects are humble to their kings. Humility solves many things. I did not wirte these two blog posts just to say that you are all prideful and sinful and you should be humble blah blah blah. I wrote these, because I struggle with humility, especially with all of my brothers and sisters. God will always love you, and be proud of you  no matter what you do. Humility just makes your relationship with God better, and you, generally, happier. I researchedthe bible and wrote this to help you (and definietly me) find this key to happiness. Jesus is happiness, and humility helps you discover more about Jesus because that was who he was: humble.

Humility (Part one)

Humility (or being humbled) is where you are below someone, acting somewhat like a servant, ready to help with the little tasks God want you to do. *The word humus came from the Greek word meaning dirt, so basically being humbled means to be below someone.* That is from the amazing book Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. I recommend anyone, yes, even if you are best friends with your siblings, to read it. 

The world has a different view than us Christians. They don't want to be BELOW people. They want to be ABOVE everyone which is impossible. Only God can fill that place. Imagine this, a pyramid of people, stacked on top of one another standing. The people at the bottom don't look very comfortable, with shoes jabbing into their shoulders. The people up top are beaming, and pleased with themselves looking down upon evryone else. What if the unhappy people at the bottom go for a mad scramble to the top. What happens then? The pyramid tumbles, and everybody falls. It fails. That would happen to our world if we didn't have humble people. THE WORLD NEEDS HUMBLE PEOPLE!!! Now, imagine the people at the bottom, beaming, along with the people up top, even though they are uncomfortable. Pleased to support people, even though they are the lowest. The pyramid stays up and SUCCESS!! That is our world with a stable ground! What the world doesn't realize, is that being humble gets you to the top! Not the bottom. God has a plan for you, but being humble, is a part of the plan... a HUGE part of it!!

I was thinking. Why do we use humiliation, to descride embarassment? So I decided to search it on Google, and the first thing that came up was this defintion:“Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission.”  Humiliation is basically, when you're prideful and say or do something, that brings you down, makes you humbled. It embarrasses you. It is like me standing up saying, "I am an awesome big sister, the best ever," and I was bragging about it. Than Danielle comes up  and starts to list my faults in front of everyone. I would be made humbled.  (Sorry, I know it isn't a very good example, but do you get my point?) It doesn't mean that this is the Christian way to be humbled. To be humbled like a Christian is to act lower than other people, but do it with a good, happy, serving heart, and to do it because you love God, and not for praise!
           Matthew 6 1-3 says, "Be careful not to practice your righteosness in front of other to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. " So this verse says, that God will reward you for the things you think no one knows about. He has seen you and is pleased. Showing off will not make you happy, just prideful. Just remember, God will be proud and delighted in you, his servant! There are some things, that you can't help people notcing your good acts. As long as you aren't bragging or making a huge deal of it! Everyone has done that at times, though. Also, just a thought,What do you think of other people who brag? Do you want to be like them? What do you think of people who are humble in secret?

            When I went to Peter Sarpy Elementary School, we did single file lines to get from one place to another. I remember always wanting to be the first in line. Everyone wants to be up front. So imagine the world as a single file line. The rockstars, VIP'S, and actors/ millionares are up front. The Christians are in the back. Some may be trying to get up to the front, and some are content with where they are. The Christians that are trying to get up front, end up totally neglecting the Christians in back, wanting to look great to the world, in the front of the line. All of the sudden, when we get to heaven, the line is turned around! The people in the back, are now up front, and the people up front are now in the back! This is what will happen. Like Matthew 20:16 says, "So the last will be first and the first will be last".